The World Amateur Subbuteo Players Association is an alternative circuit of tournaments for subbuteo table football players and clubs from around the world. Join now! It's free and it's all about playing the beautiful game! Players from 44 different nations have already joined! What about you?

Tuesday, 25 August 2015

Ipswich, Queensland - August 23, 2015

This month’s WASPA tournament hit the road, and was hosted in Ipswich. 5 players contested the trophy, which found another new home. After 7 tournaments played, there have been 4 different winners, proving Brisbane has a good competition each month. The round of league games saw Rik Bland take a 100% win ratio, topping the table on maximum points, with Giuseppe, Andrew and Gus battling out a lot of draws, in a tight jostle for positions in the league table.

Semi-finals

RIK 2 V 2 GUS (2-1 PENS) – Gus took the lead twice in this semi final, and was 15 seconds from a place in the final, but a late goal from Rik took it to extra time and penalties.
GIUSEPPE 2 V 1 ANDREW – Giuseppe had his revenge for losing out to Andrew in the 3 previous semi final showdowns, with a close 2-1 win.

Final

RIK BLAND 3 v 2 GIUSEPPE TARDIOTA (AET) – Giuseppe was fast out of the blocks with a goal within the first minute, and it wasn’t long before he added a second to take command of the final. Rik fought back, and after scoring a goal, confidence came back, and managed to get the equaliser in the 2nd half. Extra time followed, and Rik took the lead with a quick burst and shot, taking Giuseppe by surprise, and held on for his first tournament victory.

This really was Rik’s day, with a 100% record in the group games, coming from behind in semi with a last gasp equaliser, and again fighting back from 0-2 behind in the final.

Jean Carl Tabone (Vallettas SC) won the tournament organized by Attard Subbuteo Club this sunday. 16 players were registered to play and Tabone, who will play for Stembert (Belgium) next season defeated Joseph Mifsud in the final (2-0). Local players Hector Scerri and Daniele Spadaro were the semi-finalists.

The Melbourne club had a small tournament with five players this saturday. Luke Radziminski won the group stage with three wins and a draw but Benji Batten won the final against Luke to claim the title. Benny Ng was 3rd, Christos Garagounis 4th and Dillon Izon 5th.

The recent finalist of the national veterans championship won the tournament held in Grand Rapids, Michigan on sunday. Five players were taking part and Peter Alegi won his four games. Marcus Fila was runner-up while Nate Pate was third, Mike Ewer 4th and Paul Pate 5th.

The Northern California SC held a tournament this saturday in Rohnert Park, CA. Four players were taking part and everyone had 6 games. In the end of the day, Peter Vahle won the event with 11 points and more goals than Conan Mullen. Michail Keskinidis was third with 6 points and Vincnt Vidal had 4 points.

Only 4 players attended the tournament in Pecq on August 21. Some players had unexpected extra hours at work or injuries after football games so hopefully there will be more players in Templeuve next friday. After the group stage, Geoffrey Marain took the honors in the final as he beat Vincent Coppenolle by a clear 6-1.

Earlier last week Kye and Terry Arnold had the chance to pay a visit to Tampa Bay's local top player Alex Batacchi. Two small tournaments have been played on sunday and monday. Alex Batacchi finished on top of a group of 4 on sunday, winning his six games. Kye was runner-up, Isabel Batacchi was third and Terry was fourth. On monday, only three players were present and everyone played four games; Alex took the hjonors again whil Kye was runner-up again. "It's incredible the bond and friendship that our game can generate", reported Alex. After all, that's how it should always be...

During the week-end of August 8 and 9, the city of Chicago was the host of the ASA National. The week-end was fantastic with players travelling from several US States to try to become national champion. Zach Walker, who lives in Colorado, became champion again, confirming his supremacy on the North American game. On the sunday, organizers also held a tournament that was counting as both FISTF Open and WASPA regional tournament. 18 players were taking part, including England's Colin Tarry. Daniel Cranston from Maryland defeated Zach Walker in the final. Michael Tillman and Paul Eyes were the semi-finalists. The event was really successful and the American Association decided the national will be held again in Chicago, Illinois next year. Congratulations to the winners and to the Chicago United club for their great efforts.

He then ran into Eric Naszalyi who maintained his 100% record. Results elsewhere meant that a win for Eric over Gianpaolo in the fourth round would all but guarantee the title for Eric, however he trailed 1-0 at half time. He managed to turn it around in the second half though and ran out a 2-1 victor.

Gianpaolo went home early and missed Eric and his son drawing 3-3, which denied him the runer up trophy! With Mathilde winning the womens trophy virtue of a better goaldifference than Abbie Staples it meant a clean sweep for the popular Naszalyi's!

Dylan Staples and Paul Naszalyi

The day went well and finished on time. It is likely that next season it will be played in Essex, the home of Jeff Jordan.

The 11th English Masters was held in Enderby for the second consecutive season.

Reigning champion Matt Lampitt and a host of the top players in England decided to miss the Masters again unfortunately.

However seven didn't and it proved to be a very good play of quality Subbuteo.

The format was one group of of seven. A fairly surprising early result was Paolo Barone beating David Russell 4-1. He made amends later on though being the only player to take points off Chris Thomas in a 1-1 draw.

Paolo Barone and Paulo Gouveia

Paulo Gouveia made a slow start and was involved in an 8 goal thriller losing 5-3 to Chris Thomas.
In the end Chris was too strong for everyone and claimed his seventh Masters title! Well done to Chris.

Peter Thomas swept all before him like a cyclone, as he claimed the AGFA Cup XIII, the first leg of the Sydney Premier League, at the Chatswood Good Games store, clubhouse of the Northern Falcons.
He stormed into the final winning his group, then blasted five past a bemused Neil Brener in the quarter-final, overcoming Eliot 1-0 in the semi and Dominic 3-0 in the final.

Some of his goals on the day were breathaking – the third against Steve in the group was as good as you can get with speed, accuracy and brilliant timing. Two of the goals against Neil were so fast that Neil barely had time to get a hand to his keeper after Peter started the move deep in his own half.
A total of 15 players contested the event, including Fox Sports’ A-League commentator Simon Hill, who hadn’t played in more than 30 years, since participating in the North West England Championships.

Simon surprised everyone – including himself!! – by scoring three creditable victories, including the scalp of Dom Grenot, to qualify for the quarter-finals.

The finalists: Dem Grenot and Peter Thomas

A nice group picture

With 15 players, the decision was made to have three groups of five, to give everyone at least four matches.
As in all AGFA Cups – this was the 13th edition, stretching back to 1977 – all draws for groups and phases were random, without seeding.
Inevitably this led to some fascinating match ups.

Group A was comprised of Neil, Simon Hill, Dom, Stuart Codling and Todd Giles.
Group B was the so-called ‘Group of Death’ with Peter Thomas, Eliot Kennedy, Steve Dettre, Paul Magee and Daniele Lombardi.
And Group C was Adam Reynolds, Matt Barrie, Johnny Ball, Simon Cole and Jonty Brener.
In the first matches, the games went as expected, though Peter left it late against Eliot, scoring with just 20 seconds left to eke out a 2-1 win.
Daniele should have had four goals within the first five minute as he launched a whirlwind against Steve, but they settled for a 0-0, which Daniele repeated against Eliot. Stuart Codling is starting to get back into the rhythm of the game after many years, beating new boy Todd 1-0.

Simon Hill took one match to shake the rust out of his flicking fingers, losing 1-0 to Stuart, and then in the second game scored a notable 1-0 win against Dom. Paul Magee pushed Peter all the way in their encounter before Peter won 1-0, but then Peter exploded in a scoring rush to beat Daniele 4-0.
Eliot and Steve drew 1-1, and Johnny and Adam drew 1-1, leaving Groups A and C with the best chance of getting the two best third place qualifiers for the quarter finals.

When the dust settled, it was Neil, Simon and Dom from Group A, Peter and Eliot from Group B, and Adam, Matt and Johnny from Group C who made up the final 8.
Peter swept Neil 5-0 as mentioned, while Dom had sweet revenge against Simon Hill, scoring within the first 20 seconds and holding on to win 1-0. Johnny beat Adam 1-0, and then Eliot eliminated Matt 2-0.

In the free draw for the semis, it was fate that pitted Peter and Eliot again, with Peter drawing on all his attacking and defensive skills to overcome Eliot 1-0, while Dom beat Johnny 1-0.

In the final, it took Peter only 26 seconds to take the lead, with two more within the first 6 minutes, before Dom managed to get some possession.
Peter’s victory made him the winner of AGFA Cup XIII, and he now tops the Sydney Premier League standings.

Big thanks to Peter for making the trek from Canberra for the day, to Simon Hill for making the first of hopefully many appearances on the table football board, and to Paul Magee for treking in from Katoomba.
Also a special thanks to Andy & Andy at the Good Games Chatswood store for letting us use the space, and for Rachel for letting us in early to set-up.

Friday, 21 August 2015

The Australian Table Football Association now has 6 active clubs with the first WASPA tournament being held in Adelaide on Wednesday the 19th of August.

The tournament was hotly contested by Reuben Haughey, Jeremy Simpson, Myron Shipp and Chris Kelly who played a single round robin series to determine the winner.

Jeremy Simpson vs Reuben Haughey in the first official Subbuteo match (WASPA points) played in Adelaide

With 3 wins from 3 games, Jeremy Simpson came out on top but Subbuteo was the real winner as Subbuteo activity got underway in Adelaide at the Group North Wargames club (thanks to Myron Shipp for arranging the venue).

Monday, 17 August 2015

Last week Cardiff TFC organized a WASPA tournament with a good field of 10 players and a special guest from the Netherlands. Colin Lewis was in a good day as he defeated David Lauder in the first round and Flynn Barnes in quarter-final but he lost on shots to Phil Dacey in the semi-final. In the other semi, Dave Samuel won against Holland's Ronald Scheffer on shots. The final was close as well but Phil Dacey took the honors after defeating Dave Samuel (2-1).

Saturday 15 August 2015, Pretoria, South Africa:

We had 6 entries for the 2015 PFC Super Cup event with 15 scheduled matches, ensuring each participant played 5 matches on the day. Round 1 produced three 0-0 scorelines and we had to wait for the latter rounds to get some goal action. Bevin Reed went top of the standings when he beat Rowin Wilson by 2-0 in Match 7, and Bevin maintained the top spot until Round 4.
Match 9, Jayden vd Merwe (2) v (1) Julian vd Merwe produced the "match of the day" - with Julian taking the lead after 5min of play with a well executed chip shot from the edge of the shooting area ; Jayden stormed backed and was level after 9min of play and then took the lead in the 11th minute - both goals scored from longe range!
In Round 4 action, Match 12 ended Rowin (0) - (2) Jayden, and that result ensured that Jayden went above pacesetter Bevin by virtue of having scored more goals. That result also meant that Match 15 (Jayden v Bevin) would be a potential title decider ! But prior to that, in Match 14, Kegan vd Merwe needed a draw to secure 3rd place on the day - that match ended 0-0 handing Kegan a deserved 3rd place finish. The two title challengers could not be separated in Match 15 - Jayden (0) v (0) Bevin, a very tactical match with limited chances which then forced the event into a Final Play-off match to decide the event winner. That match started much like Match 15 - very tactical. However, in the last 5 minutes of the match Jayden launched attack after attack with most of the play happening in Bevin's goal area - but Bevin's resolve held firm, a testament to how well his defensive play was all day as Bevin ended the day
without conceding at all!
As was the case during last month's GOLD CUP event, these same two players (Jayden & Bevin) had to decide the event by way of penalty shots - and it was Bevin who overturned the tables this time around, winning 3-2 on shots. Well done to Bevin Reed and congratulations on his second WASPA title in 4 months!

In conjunction with Singapore's Golden Jubilee SG50 National Day, the 2nd edition of the National Day Mini-Tournament took place on 7 Aug 2015 at the Singapore Sports Hub Library.

The 16 players were allocated into 2 groups of 8 players in accordance to the latest July 2015 SG Ranking. The Swiss format was adopted with 4 rounds of play. At the end of the 4 rounds, the 1st-placed players of both groups play-off for the Champion/Runner-Up spot; the 2nd-placed players play-off for the Third/Fourth position; while the 3rd-placed players play-off for the 5th/6th position; and so on till the 8th-placed players play-off for 15th/16th position. This format of play guarantees every player a minimum of 5 games – 4 Swiss games + 1 play-off game.

In the play-off for the Champion/Runner-Up spot, Michael was up against Bernard. In a closely-fought affair with Michael’s trademark highly famed Italian-style close tight marking, Bernard took a surprise lead that barely lasted 2 minutes. The game ended 1-1 and went into shots. In the ensuing shots, Bernard just edged out Michael by a single 1-0 score-line to emerge victorious!!

In the play-off for Third/Fourth position, veteran Kok Wee was up against 1 of Singapore’s up-and-coming young talent – Anas. However, the veteran proved to be still the master of the talented rookie as Kok Wee ran out 3-0 winners to take Third position!!

Tuesday, 4 August 2015

News has just come in to ATFA HQ that Perth SC had organized and hosted their 2nd WASPA Tournament on Sunday the 2nd of August. Chris Thorn ran out as the winner over John Harty and new player Alan Kimber.
Anyone interested in playing Subbuteo in Perth can e-mail Chris Thorn at barbsthorn@bigpond.com

The Western Flickers – a sub-group of the Melbourne Table Football Club – was formed to to cater for players living on the north/west side of Melbourne and provide more opportunities to play the wonderful game of table football.

We held our 2nd WASPA event today and there was much excitement building up to the event with first timers and returning old friends expected to attend. Despite a couple of last minute pull-outs, I am happy to report that the day was another great success!

Continued Growth
Growing upon the inaugural Western Flickers tournament in May, 7 players took part in the WASPA promotional tournament today. A very big welcome to the following Western Flickers first timers:

Fauzi Rahmen – A newcomer to the game but very keen to try it out
Martin Sarnecki – A Subbuteo Melbourne early pioneer but who has been away from the game for a while since
Aidan Deverall – only started playing Subbuteo very recently
To mix things up a bit, the players were randomly split into 2 groups.

The Group Stages
In the group stages, defence and caution was the order of the day with more than half of the matches drawn and the rest mostly decided by a single goal. Only Benjamin achieved a winning margin of 2 goals and this proved to be decided as he topped his group with Benny coming in second.
A special congrats to Fauzi who showed great promise and displayed excellent defensive flicking. He managed to get 2 deserved draws in his very first table football tournament (and would also later score his first goal in the 4th placing play-off match). Well done mate!

In the other group, experience prevailed with Adam and Martin finishing 1st and 2nd respectively despite a strong showing from ever improving Christos using his brand new Sniper 2.0 LW AEK Athens team.

Youth in action

The Semi-Finals
The semi-finals were a totally different affair with goals aplenty and excitement galore. Young Benjamin’s dream run was ended by a clinical Martin in the first semi-final. In spite of Benjamin deploying a Chelsea-inspired “park the bus” strategy, Martin managed to blast his way through the wall of defenders to win 3-0.

In the other semi-final between Adam and Benny, it was another tense affair the closely matched players. In a game of half-chances, Benny managed to snatch the lead with a nicely worked attack through the middle helped by a defensive error clearing the way. And just as Benny thought he was through to the final, Adam equalised with a tremendous goal from the wing right into the top corner with a minute or so to spare!

A shootout it was then and Benny finally broke his 4-shootout losing streak to get to the final 2-0. Wearing his lucky Singapore jersey (to commemorate Singapore’s 50 years of Independence celebration week) probably helped!

Action in the final

The Grand Final
So, it was Benny vs Martin in the grand finale. And what a memorable match it turned out to be with some truly excellent goals. Benny took the lead with the classic but difficult corner-and-shoot-on-the run into the bottom corner not giving Martin any time to react. It didn’t take Martin to draw level with a stunning long distance strike that chipped the ball into the top corner giving the keeper no chance. 1-1!

The third goal though was a complete fluke with Benny mis-flicking the player who ended up flying towards Martin while the ball trickled slowly into goal with the keeper stunned motionless. Martin then went on a full scale offensive to equalise and was duly rewarded with less than a minute to spare. Taking advantage of a needless free kick given away by Benny on the right edge of the penalty area, Martin scored a brilliant free-kick-and-shoot-on-the-run goal!
2-2 and on to another shootout. In a tale of misses, it went all the way with Benny winning by the solitary single shootout goal to achieve his 2nd Western Flickers WASPA tournament win in a row.

Conclusion
All in all, it was a great fun day of table football that was enjoyed by all. Thanks to everyone for making this a successful event. A very special thanks to Adam Deverall for allowing us to use this home and arranging the boards.

With a couple of regulars to return, the future is looking bright indeed for the Western Flickers. GO WEST!

Final standings are:
1. Benny Ng
2. Martin Sarnecki
3. (Joint) Adam Deverall & Benjamin Ng
5. Christos Garagounis
6. Fauzi Rahmen
7. Aidan Deverall
P.S. If anyone is interested in taking part in future Melbourne TFC events (at the clubhouse in Brighton or with the Western Flickers) or just popping by for chat and look-see, feel free to send Benny Ng an email at bennidokk@yahoo.com

Brisbane Subbuteo club had another tournament and players got their new jerseys

July was a busy month with 25 regional tournaments, 1 "promo" and 1 tournament with the old rules.

For the first time, we reach the amazing number of 1600 ranked players.

Amazing tournament with 32 players in Greece

Thanks to all the organizers who made it possible but there are some special thanks to:
- Kent Invicta TFC (England), Catania (Italy) and TSG Rain (Germany) for organizing WASPA events during their FISTF events;
- Highlanders Haidari (Greece) for having a wonderful event with 32 players (!!!);
- Players from the Isle of Man for being part of our circuit;
- Robert Green (Australia) for travelling in Italy and playing a final there;
- Dario Passadore for hosting the first tournament in Miami and having a special guest from Belgium.

Growing numbers in Pretoria, South Africa

Your ideas to develop the game and the WASPA circuit are more than welcome. What can we do to grow next season? Your feedback is more than welcome.

Don't hesitate to ask for WASPA status if you are hosting some events. Just send a request to vincent.cop@rsca.com

Group Stages
Group stages saw a few upsets with Sven, Ezan and Fauzi beating the seeded players to top their group whilst Nic nudged Future winner, Noor Haikal out of the group stages on goal difference. Rudy & Anas breeze past their group but ended up meeting each other in the Quarter Finals.

Barrages
Kok Wee was on fire & hammered Rizal Tayib while Michael just edged Nic with a solitary goal.

Quarter-Finals
Rudy and Fauzi won comfortably while Michael had to squeeze a goal past Ezan in extra time. Kok Wee beat Sven on sudden death shoot-out after their game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Semi-Finals
Michael showed strong resilience to shut out Fauzi scoring prowess with a 1-0 win while Rudy came from behind to clinch a 3-1 win over Kok Wee.

Final
Michael vs Rudy. Contrast playing styles made the final an interesting affair. Both started playing cautiously with limited chances with most of the battle being before the shooting line. As time tricked, Michael was presented with a shot just inside the shooting area however Rudy managed to make a near block flick with his player covering the angle of the ball. Thinking that the chance was defused the crowd was amazed when Michael's shot dipped over the keeper and the ball ended into the top left corner of the goal. Game was on ... Rudy poured forward and tried franticly to get a equaliser with the best chance came when Michael's keeper goal kick dropped nicely for Rudy however the latter wasted the chance when his shot towards an empty goal only hit the post alas the chance was gone. 1-0 the end score and Michael Choong was crown the winner of the event.

Chihiro and Kok Wee

The tournament also marked the last day for club player Chihiro as he would be migrating to Poland. TFAS president presented Chihiro with a framed TFAS jersey with all of our players signing the memorabilia. Chihiro signed off the tournament with smiles with him winning the consolation plates event with Roche chocolates as prize.

We thanked Flick Central & Jurong Central Zone 'D' RC for the prizes and were pleased with the support of flickers who came.

The prizes

Congrats to all the winners & well done to all who contributed to make the event an eventful tournament.

Saturday, 1 August 2015

This thursday the third tournament of the "Warcoing Ducks" had a turnout of 8 and among the players, four were playing their first tournament ever. The first two sessions of the Swiss system were used to introduce new players to the rules so all of them had to play against the experienced players. In the last two sessions, geoffrey Marain won his two games to win his 41st WASPA tournament. Great job for the newly-signed player of Flickers Milano! Matthias Averlant (13) was runner-up thanks to a better goal-difference. The ranking of the evening was as follows:

Five good reasons to organize WASPA tournaments

1. You only need 3 players to have the WASPA status and get ranking points;2. It is always better to play under the banner of an international association instead of playing only friendly games;3. The WASPA will help you to make new friends and meet more different players;4. You can slightly change some of the official rules when you organize a tournament (for instance you can play games of 20 minutes);5. Tournaments are easy to organize and you just need to announce the tournaments a few days in advance to get the WASPA status.

For other nations, candidates are welcome. Clubs interested to join the WASPA circuit are also free to contact us. Applications should be sent to Vincent Coppenolle

To buy Subbuteo

Mad About Games

Philosophy

The philosophy of the WASPA is to make unity between all amateur subbuteo players in the world, to organize tournaments and meetings between players at regional, national and international level.There will be a world ranking organized.Players of every country should have the same importance. There should not be difference between players in or outside Europe. Players from small nations should have the same rights and duties as those from bigger countries.